Right Where You Want Me
by carleymarie
Summary: Relationships are complex. AU Trory.
1. Chapter 1

Title: Right Where You Want Me

Author: carleymarie

Category: Gilmore Girls

Disclaimer: I own nothing except my thoughts and the MacBook I type them on.

Rating: T

Pairing: Tristan/Rory

Reviews: Greatly appreciated.

Summary: Relationships are complex. AU Trory.

A/N: It has been more than a while since I last penned a fic. I'm trying something a little different. Confusion may be felt while reading, but try to see each new chapter as a piece of a larger puzzle to be understood as the plot progresses. Enjoy!

Chapter One

I hadn't seen him lately. By lately I mean since the end of the school year. My senior year. Our senior year. We weren't friends and weren't enemies. It's hard to say what we were exactly. We only had one class together that final year, but I think that we both made sure to make some sort of contact during it. Whether it be a glance, a smile, or a conversation.

For six months, starting at the end of our junior year and finishing half way into senior year, we would type to each other online. Private moments between us, but whatever would happen during these conversations would not be brought up when we saw each other in real life.

I had thought about him a lot lately. Maybe it was because of that one time I saw him during freshman orientation. During our conversations, it seemed that neither of us thought that we would end up at the same University. I planned on attending Harvard University, and him to go to Princeton. Yet, here we were, both attending Yale University. The same place. One glance to each other, and me shaking my head at him was all that occurred.

Like most of our relationship, we would be together for a short moment of time, as if intersecting over completely opposite paths, and then just as fast, the fleeting moment would pass. We would be on our own separate courses again.

Why would we be on the same path? We didn't come from the same background. We weren't part of the same circle in school. We didn't have any of the same interests. In actuality, we had nothing in common, save attending the same high school, turned University. I think it was that which created a draw for us to each other.

It had been months since that sighting during orientation, and I saw him at the mall. With a girl of course. He was always with another girl. Tristan DuGray was always with a different girl. In the three years I had known him, I don't think that I had ever seen him with the same girl twice. Always beautiful and always a brunette. I wondered if I kept my hair brown because I knew that he liked it. Nothing happened between us when I saw him. I don't even know if he saw me, but as I walked by him I spoke to my friend about another guy because if, on the off chance, he did hear me, and did care, I would want him to know that I wasn't sitting around single. Of course I was sitting around being single, but he didn't need to know that.

I saw him again soon after. In a bookstore. I remembered one of our conversations from our high school days:

"_So what did you do today?" Tristan asked._

"_I went to the bookstore," I simply replied._

"_You're really living on the edge," he responded._

"_Oh, I know," I lamely said back. Feeling stupid that I mentioned the bookstore as an exciting place to go on one of my first evenings after finishing school for the summer._

"_Wow, that's a good way to bring in summer. Let's buy a book. In case you didn't notice, school just ended Rory. You just finished having to use books. You're suppose to forget about books for three months. Why buy more? At the very least, not start reading the day after an English exam," he said._

"_Well those books were for school. These books are ones that I choose for myself," I replied back. Of course, right after I felt like an idiot, letting him think that all I focused on was school._

"_It's still reading," he responded._

"_I know. You don't read?" I asked back, wanting to know something about him, rather than just having my interests on display._

"_Nope. I have many hobbies. Reading is just not one of them," he said back._

_He listed his hobbies for me. As promised, none of them included reading. In fact, most weren't even legal._

He was standing in front of a large row of books. The fiction section. One armed stretched, bracing his body on the bookcase, while the other rested on the base of his neck, absentmindedly rubbing the spot where his hairline ended.

Upon first glance, a small smile rose on my face. He looked so casual, yet in deep concentration. Of course, he could have been picking up books for classes, but that is what the University bookstore was for.

I quietly walked up beside him.

"I didn't think you knew what a bookstore was," I said to him, abruptly startling his concentration.

I didn't look at him, only at the bookcase he was looking at, yet I could hear his mouth slowly change from a frown to a smirk.

He turned toward me. "Rory Gilmore," he simply said. His tone even, not giving away any hint of emotion.

I slowly turned my head to look up at him: "Tristan DuGray," I said back with a similar tone.

For a moment, we simply looked at each other. Small smiles on our faces, waiting for the other to say something.

"So, you didn't end up going to Princeton," I finally said, just feeling the need to break the silence.

"Nope. No Harvard either?" he asked.

"Nope," I mimicked back.

Another few moments passed, and he had yet to say anything. I stared up at him again, suddenly getting angry.

I decided to speak, not able to hold in my anger: "Seriously?" I asked.

"Seriously what?" he asked, not understanding why I was angry.

"We haven't—Never mind. Class dismissed," I said, disappointed with the way our conversation was playing out.

I had imagined us seeing each other again, but this was not one of the scenarios that had occurred to me.

I turned on my heel, and began to walk away, wanting to get away from the embarrassment that this conversation had become, but felt a large hand come to rest on my shoulder.

"You look beautiful today," he said.

Just as I wanted out, he had to pull me back in.


	2. Chapter 2

Title: Right Where You Want Me

Author: carleymarie

Category: Gilmore Girls

Disclaimer: I own nothing except my thoughts and the MacBook I type them on.

Rating: T

Pairing: Tristan/Rory

Reviews: Greatly appreciated. Thank you to everyone who reviewed the first chapter.

Summary: Relationships are complex. AU Trory.

A/N: It has been more than a while since I last penned a fic. I'm trying something a little different. Confusion may be felt while reading, but try to see each new chapter as a piece of a larger puzzle to be understood as the plot progresses. I have added a link on my profile to my livejournal for news about my fic updates. Happy Valentine's Day. Enjoy!

Chapter Two

The night I saw him in the bookstore made me feel like something had changed. Maybe not changed exactly, but had the potential to change. This "potential" for _something_ was what had held my deep fascination with him.

Naturally, I knew that when we both left the bookstore, separately of course and we would be back on our different journeys.

Him to a party, where he would naturally find a new girl, and me back home, endlessly analyzing our conversation from that evening. Thinking about what I could have said differently, or done differently to have us leave together. _I _wanted to be the girl he left with.

This relationship was like nothing I had experienced before. It was like, somehow I knew that if we got together, we would be the perfect couple. Or as perfect a couple as two people could be.

It's that old concept in dating where a good girl could find a good boy and be content, but good girls want bad boys, because it's the challenge and the chase. Some things can be too easy. Moreover, every girl wants to be the one girl who can _change _that boy.

Like most of our meetings, it would be for very little time and then we would not see each other for three times that. Not fair in my mind, but I think the stars lined up for us to meet again, as we did on the first day of our second term:

_First term I feared not knowing anyone in any of my classes. Of course, not being in high school anymore, I felt that it would be easier to meet new people. As long as I did not see anyone from my past, I would be fine._

_There was one person I wanted to see. Tristan DuGray. _

_I went to all five of my classes over the course of my first week. He was not in a single class of mine. Of course, I was taking social sciences and humanities classes, and he was taking business classes._

Second term on my first day, I entered my freshman English Literature classroom.

I looked around the room. Not a large, but at the same time, not a small room. One hundred seats in the room, at the most.

I sat about eight rows from the front of the room, and a little off to the left. As the classroom began to fill with other people, I surveyed the room. I turned around in my seat and saw the profile of a person that I would know anywhere. Tousled blonde hair, bright blue eyes, and a smirk that could be seen a mile away.

Sitting at the back of the room of course. I knew that he was a smart person, but I also knew that he did not want anyone to know how smart he was.

I stared for a moment, lost in how natural and at ease he was. In his seat, arm draped casually across the back of the seat next to him.

A small smile rose to my face, but at that second he had to turn and look at me. Of course, I in turn, quickly turned my head to face the front of the room, grabbing the course syllabus off my desk and began to frantically flip through the outline, hoping that the pages flipping would fan away the blush off my face.

The rest of the class passed with a lack of any activity between the two of us. Obviously due to the fact that the professor was lecturing.

Class ended quickly, and I began placing my laptop into my messenger bag, planning to grab a cup of coffee before my next class began.

Engrossed in my thoughts, I did not see anyone come up beside me:

"New computer?" the person asked.

Startled, my thoughts being interrupted I simply replied, "Yeah," wanting to say more, but not wanting to ramble.

"Nice," he said back.

I was wondering if he was being charged by the word in our conversations. I recalled a snippet from one of our past conversations that discussed our differing conversation styles:

"_You talk too much," he said to me._

"_Well, you don't talk enough," I said back._

It was always our problem.

"So, how is your boyfriend?" he asked, startling me out of my thoughts.

"What boyfriend?" I asked back.

"Never mind," he said.

I knew it was a not-so subtle way to find out if I was dating anyone. We had been through this before. Many times in fact, and just like those times, I always felt compelled to find out if he was seeing anyone.

"How about you, any girlfriend?" I asked him.

"No. You know me," he said back.

It was such a loaded statement. I knew the many sides of Tristan DuGray.

I had expected that he did not have a girlfriend. Why would someone like him want to be with one girl, when he could be on a rotating basis with five or six girls at once?

I titled my head and stared at him a moment, scanning through my mind trying to figure out if he was trying to say something with a hidden meaning.

Did I really know Tristan DuGray? More importantly, _could_ I _really_ know everything I wanted about Tristan DuGray?

Finally, I softly replied, "Yeah."

"We should get coffee sometime. You know, catch up," he said to me.

"Yeah, sure, sometime. " I replied, nonchalantly.

Sometime. It is just a case of when that sometime would be.


	3. Chapter 3

Title: Right Where You Want Me

Author: carleymarie

Category: Gilmore Girls

Disclaimer: I own nothing except my thoughts and the MacBook I type them on.

Rating: T

Pairing: Tristan/Rory

Reviews: Greatly appreciated.

Summary: Relationships are complex. AU Trory.

A/N: See my LJ link in my profile for all of my excuses for taking so long to update and to see where I want to take these two in future chapters. Enjoy!

Chapter Three

I am not really the type of girl who likes to spend her time at drunken parties, or any parties for that matter. Yet, here I am, in a crowded off campus apartment attending the party of a person I met in one of my classes.

I make my way around the party, and as always, seem to find myself standing against a wall wishing that I had not shown up.

But of course, I want to see _him._

I stood for what seemed like hours, glancing at my watch wondering how long I would wait before leaving.

I glanced up and saw him walking toward me.

He reached across the small space between us, and lightly reached out and held my right hand.

I tried to let out only a small smile, but could not help the massive grin coming across my face.

"You're beautiful," he said to me, slightly slurring his words.

"You're drunk," I said to him sternly, my smile being wiped from my face completely.

"I'm not drunk, I'm relaxed. You should try it sometime," he said to me.

"Well, sorry that I don't see drinking as my number one hobby," I struck back.

"It's not, I just like to have fun," he said.

I saw how serious he was. He actually thought that he was right and justified.

"I just can't do this anymore," I finally said, after waiting a few moments to let his comments sink in.

"Can't do what?" he asked me.

"I hate it when you do that," I said.

"Hate it when I do what?" he replied, acting oblivious to where my change in feelings were coming from.

"When you act stupid."

"When I act stupid?"

"Yes, and add being a jerk to that list also," I added.

"I'm stupid and a jerk. How did you come up with that?" he asked.

"I'm trying to think of a way to word this kindly," I said. Not wanting to push him away, but wanting to let him know that things could not continue the way they were.

"Just say it," he replied, getting irritated.

"I think that you act the way everyone else wants you to act. I know that you're smart, but you're so concerned with hooking up with random girls that you don't even notice," I said.

"I don't hook up with random girls. Not very often any ways," he said defensively.

"I just don't think that we can ever make this work," I said, wanting to be finished with the conversation, along with trying to shake the thought of him with other girls out of my head.

I started to walk away; finished with the conversation.

"We'll make it work," he yelled after me.

I slowly turned around.

"No, I'll make it work and you'll just be you," I said.

"What is that suppose to mean?" he asked.

"You're Tristan Dugray," I said, like it was an all-telling description out of a dictionary.

"Really? I'm Tristan Dugray? I had no idea. I mean, I thought I was -"

"Don't do that," I interrupted.

"Do what?" he asked.

"You know exactly what," I said.

"Well seeing as you seem to know everything and am implying that I know nothing, please enlighten me," he said in an irritated tone.

"You run hot and cold. You want me when you want me. It's all on your terms," I said quickly.

"On my terms?"

"Yes."

"I don't know what alternate universe you're living in, but in this one, it is the exact opposite," he said, exasperatedly.

I decided to put our undefined relationship out on the line.

"_I'm_living in the one where I can spend time with you, alone, and it is great, but I know that you will be spending time alone with another girl the next night," I said, becoming sad at the end of the statement.

"Rory," he sighed, running his fingers through his hair.

"Don't tell me it's not true. You can't commit and I can't not commit," I stated.

I began to wonder whether he thought that I was completely oblivious to his playboy lifestyle, or if I was crazy enough to think that it was all right with me to be one of the many.

He stared back at me, knowing that this was it. The end of the conversation.

I waited for him to reply, but he didn't.

"There is no reason for us to even be discussing anything right now because you won't remember it tomorrow morning and I will," I said.

Again, no response from him.

I simply nodded and walked away, leaving him in the spot where our conversation had started.

A conversation that we have had many times before and will probably have in the future. The difference is that the next morning I will remember our conversation.

I will definitely remember.


	4. Chapter 4

Title: Right Where You Want Me

Author: carleymarie

Category: Gilmore Girls

Disclaimer: I own nothing except my thoughts and the MacBook I type them on.

Rating: T

Pairing: Tristan/Rory

Reviews: Greatly appreciated.

Summary: Relationships are complex. AU Trory.

A/N: Thanks for all of the reviews and for adding me to your favourites/alerts. Enjoy!

Chapter Four

I am always searching for a new place to study. The silent study floors in the library are too quiet and the main floor is too loud. I need my balance between too much and too little . . . of everything.

I took the elevator up to a different floor in the library that people do not use often. I stepped off of the elevator and there he was.

A mess of blonde hair sitting at a table for two.

In traditional Tristan DuGray fashion, the other chair was not empty. Across from him sat a girl. Yet again, a different girl than I had ever seen.

He glanced my way and I glanced back before shaking my head and walking straight towards an empty table.

I tried to read my textbook, but could not help but stare at the back of his head as he sat only a few feet away from me. I was wondering if this is seriously how this encounter was happening. Then again, with him, what was I suppose to expect?

After a half hour of sitting, the brunette gathered her things and left with no physical contact occurring between him and her.

I swiftly got up and sat in the chair across from him.

"Where's your date?" I asked.

"Someone jealous?" he asked me, amused.

"Never," I curtly replied.

"Are you sure because-"

"No. Why would I be jealous? What would I have to be jealous about?" I quickly

responded, cutting him off.

He chuckled.

"I cannot believe that I ever saw anything in you. You can be such a jerk sometimes," I replied angrily.

"Okay, come on. Would you rather have us study together?"

"Well seeing as we are not in any of the same classes, no, I don't want to study with you. And I don't want to do whatever your euphemism for 'study' is."

"Why would you assume that I had ulterior motives? I just want to study with my favourite girl" he said, reaching across for my hand.

I scoffed. "I am not your favourite girl. I don't even think I would crack the top twenty" I said, pulling my hand away from his.

"Now you're just exaggerating."

"I think that we just want different things. You want to be doing exactly what you're doing. I guess by now I should just expect the rotating cycle of girls," turning the conversation serious.

"I really do not know what you're talking about because there is nothing going on with that girl or any girl."

"Of course there is nothing going on. At least if you could commit to one girl, than maybe you would know."

"Is that what this is about?" he asked, reaching across to touch my hand that was gripping the hard metal arm of my chair.

I flinched my arm back and watched the confused expression on his face. He really was not following my thought process.

"You know what? I'm not sixteen anymore. You're not sixteen anymore. This is getting old," I burst out.

"What is?" he asked, utterly confused.

"Us. You and me. All of it. I just don't know what we're trying to do here. We're just too different."

"No, we're not."

"Yes, yes we are. We have nothing in common except for this, and I don't even know what this is," I said.

"So you're annoyed?"

"No, I'm not annoyed. I'm irritated which is completely different."

"Well, don't think that you're the only one feeling that way. You spend a lot of time being preoccupied with every single girl you see me with."

"Well, fine. Wouldn't want to be the only girl to question what you're doing. I must just be horrible to be around," I responded, patronizingly.

"You can be so serious sometimes."

"I'm not serious. Sometimes, and I know that this is a crazy thought, but I like to know what is going on with you and half of the female population of this school. We can only have the same conversation about a million times before it starts to get old."

"And what conversation is that exactly?"

"At the end of the day it doesn't matter to you what girl you have with you, so long as you have one. That is your bottom line, but it's not mine. And am I just suppose to accept that you just have no idea what or who you want?"

"Do you think that maybe after all this time it might be you that doesn't know what they want?"

"Are you serious? I'm the one who is always-"

"The one who always what?" he interrupted. "Has cryptic messages in everything she says, but never comes out and says exactly what she wants?"

"I know exactly what I want and if you do not know what that is, than we should not even be having this conversation."

"Rory-"

I could only shake my head repeatedly.

"I'm sorry that you're taking everything I'm saying the wrong way" he said to me.

"You're not sorry, you still think that this is some sort of game."

"I don't."

"Really? Well good job in showing that."

"Well what do you want me to do? Tell me."

"I don't want to have to tell you to do anything. I'm not your mother."

He stared at me for a moment, not saying anything back, so I continued.

"I want you to want what I want. But you don't. I know that you don't" I replied sadly, upsetting myself with the statement.

He stared at me for a moment. I wasn't sure if I was completely right or wrong, but I noticed quickly that he wasn't staring at me anymore. I turned around in my chair to see a tall, athletic brunette.

I quickly got up from my chair, took the one step needed for me to be next to him, and leaned down to whisper in his ear, "Enjoy girl five hundred and forty-seven" I said, and walked back over my table to gather my things to make a swift exit, feeling the tears coming to my eyes.

He quickly followed behind me and reached his arm out towards me before pulling back, knowing that touching me would not benefit him in this situation.

"Come on Rory, we just need to figure this out."

"Figure what out? You like girls just too much and I can't compete with that. At the end of the day, I want one guy, not one hundred and fifty," I said, not turning to look at him.

"So, that's it. We're done, then," he said to me.

"Yeah, we're done," I said back.

I took a deep breath to compose myself and looked at him one more time before nodding and turning to walk away from him. I didn't look back as I walked away, and he didn't follow me.


	5. Chapter 5

Title: Right Where You Want Me

Author: carleymarie

Category: Gilmore Girls

Disclaimer: I own nothing except my thoughts and the MacBook I type them on.

Rating: T

Pairing: Tristan/Rory

Reviews: Greatly appreciated.

Summary: Relationships are complex. AU Trory.

A/N: Thanks for all of the reviews and for adding me to your favourites/alerts. See my LJ link in my profile for more information about this story. I made it my goal to update this story before my birthday (July 16th) and here it is. Enjoy!

Chapter Five

It had been months since our last encounter. I tried to forget about him as well as I could, but of course, I couldn't. Thoughts of him would come into my mind during classes, leaving me to daydream off into thinking of what could have been.

I saw him one day, returning books to the library early one morning. His back was to me, but I'd know any part of him anywhere.

"Well, I hope you realize that we're going to have to start a club soon" I said, walking up behind him.

I could practically hear the smirk rise onto his face before he turned towards me. Not one to disappoint, his smirk was present.

"I'm not sure that I understand," he said slowly, confused as to where I was going with this conversation from the outset.

"-Of people that are awake and function before nine in the morning," I supplied.

"I like to think that I can function at any time," he said, leaning in towards me so that I knew the implications of his double meaning.

"Definitely not one of the many," I replied back. "Of course that's the way you like it. Having many, but not wanting to be one of them," I finished.

He must have thought that I was providing a segue for him, but what he was about to reveal to me was something that I did not to know.

"So, I have a girlfriend," he said to me. No more small talk, just straight to the point.

I sighed, and then tried to place a smile on my face. At any other point in time, I would not want him to know my true feelings. That's usually how we had played things in the past. Normally, I would play my feelings close to the vest, but all bets were off once I found that our complicated relationship had gotten even more complicated with a girlfriend coming into the picture.

"Eventually even Tristan DuGray had to get a girlfriend, right?" I said coldly, not able to contain my disgust with the thought of him with someone else. I just couldn't maintain my cool exterior this time. _Tristan has a girlfriend. Tristan . . . Girlfriend . . . The two words just could not merge in my mind, at least not when the term was not connecting his name with mine._

"Don't say it like that," he said.

"How am I supposed to say it? Do you want me to throw you a party? Or wait, are you getting married anytime soon because that would be even better. Maybe I can throw you two a wedding shower. Better yet, why don't I go online and become an ordained minister and then I can marry the two of you?" I finished, using only one breath.

"Wow, sarcasm and jealousy, what a mix" he replied, amused by my uncharacteristic display of emotion.

"I can't help it that the tone of my voice is sarcastic," I said, flatly.

"And the jealous part?" he inquired.

"She's a lucky girl," I said simply, ignoring his question completely. "I always knew that if you could just figure out what you wanted, you would be a good boyfriend. Let's just leave it at that." I said, trailing off sadly, looking down away from his face, unable to look at him.

"I don't know what you want from me here Rory. I don't know what you want me to say," he said, running his hand through his hair, a signal that he was stressed.

"I don't want anything. I mean, of course there are things that I want, but with you, none of them are realistic" I replied, rambling.

"Tell me, just this once, tell me what you're thinking. I need to know," he said, practically pleading with me to know exactly what I meant, the conversation taking an intense turn.

I knew that the situation could not get worse, so I decided that after all these years it was time to put my cards on the table.

"Sure, do you want me to say it? Yes, I wanted to be your first girlfriend. I thought that we would be great together," I said, ending the cryptic nature of our conversations for good.

"Rory," he said shaking his head, not knowing how to respond.

"If you ever did ask me to be with you, you know I would have. How much more obvious could I have made it?"

Not leaving anytime for him to respond, I had to let him know exactly what I was thinking. "I had to initiate everything. I wanted it to be your turn. I wanted to be the girl. I felt like I could only bring about so much with us before you had to do something. I guess I should've figured out that if you wanted me, you would've let me know. You obviously did that with your girlfriend."

"What do you want me to do? Break up with her and go out with you?" he asked.

"No, that's the last thing that I want."

"And why is that?"

"Well obviously I didn't ever come to mind to be your girlfriend before, so why now?"

He reached one hand out towards me, pulling a few strands of hair out of my face, securing it behind my ear. He then leaned in towards me, pressing a soft kiss against my cheek, letting his lips linger for few seconds. He waited a beat, and then pressed his lips to mine, but only for a short moment before I stopped him, knowing that this is not really the way that I wanted for us to get together.

I raised my hands, slightly shaking, unable to stop the trembling as I reached up to either side of his face and slowly pushed his face away from mine, but not letting goof him completely. I focused on the contrast between my delicate feminine hand and his strong angular jaw.

"I can't do this," I whispered, tears starting to form in my eyes. I knew that I wanted this, but not this way, and because of that, I would have to let him go for now. I did not want him under any form of coercion. "I think that we should just forget that this happened."

"What, no? Not now, don't you want this?" he asked, his voice slightly hoarse.

"I can't. I can't be that girl. You have a girlfriend. You need to go back to her and pretend that nothing happened, which, according to me, nothing did happen. Not yet anyways" I said, taking a step away from him needing the physical space between us.

"Rory," he started, reaching back towards me, obviously needing the opposite amount of space between us.

"Tristan, I just . . . You didn't fight for me then, and I can't fight for us when you're with someone else. And I can't be with you if you break up with a girl for a reason that has nothing to do with the two of you because she will be crushed," I said, quickly sobering up, knowing the implications of what could happen. "I don't want to take you away from someone because I know what it is like when you're taken away from me."

"Do you though? Do want to be with me? Yes or no?" he asked, point blank.

"Honestly? I can barely even look at you. So no, I don't want to be with you," I said, coldly turning the conversation from intimate to detached. I needed a clean break from him. No friendship or relationship of any kind. I'd be left splintered into a million pieces, but suffering by myself would be better than ruining a relationship.

I found myself turing away from him again. I was just madly in love with him and had to walk away. And that's what I did.


	6. Chapter 6

Title: Right Where You Want Me

Author: carleymarie

Category: Gilmore Girls

Disclaimer: I own nothing except my thoughts and the MacBook I type them on.

Rating: T

Pairing: Tristan/Rory

Reviews: Greatly appreciated.

Summary: Relationships are complex. AU Trory.

A/N: This is the last chapter of the story. It's pure fluff at the end. Thank you for all of the reviews, adds to favourites, and author alerts. I appreciate them so much. I have not been reading much Gilmore Girls fiction lately, but I thought that I should write a conclusion to a fic that I really loved writing. Thank you again and enjoy!

Chapter Six

Have you ever noticed that when you want to see someone, you know, randomly bump into them, it never happens. Yet, when you don't want to see them, they appear everywhere?

I was perfectly fine with going back to the way things were with Tristan after what happened between us. For me, I wanted to go back to the time when we really didn't see each other. I hated to admit it, but I had more feelings than I was comfortable acknowledging. Distance seemed to be a good thing.

Of course, the universe seemed to have a completely different plan for us:

_I was out in the mall. I needed a little retail therapy to distract me from reality, but of course, I just have to bump into Tristan. I made an attempt to turn away and leave the store before he saw me, but he just couldn't let it be that easy. If he wanted to talk, I wasn't going to make it easy for him because I knew it wasn't going to be easy for me._

"_Out shopping on a Friday night? Shouldn't there be a bar out there somewhere with your name on it?" I asked, starting the conversation before he could even say "hey." Not missing a beat I added, "Or does the girlfriend not let you go out anywhere? I can see that . . ."_

"_Don't be like that" he said, cutting me off. "We broke up, by the way. It wasn't working," he added, the last sentence coming out softly._

"_I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Having a girlfriend was never really your thing. Of course, you know that" I replied, continuing with the downhill direction that this conversation was heading._

"_Don't you want to know why?" _

"_Not really, I'm sure I could come up with a million scenarios of why you broke up. You got bored, you met someone else, or maybe the whole monogamy thing was just a fun little experiment that just didn't work out for you. I can continue on if you'd like" I finished, coldly. It harsh, even for our current situation._

"_Wow, Rory. Nice, I really appreciate hearing your true thoughts about me" he snapped back at me._

"_Well, I'm sorry, but you had to expect that. I mean, come on. We could pretend that we're friends and that would be fun, for a whole thirty seconds, but after that it just really wouldn't work. We never work." I silently added "in any configuration" to the end of that statement._

"_Screw you, Rory."_

"_You know what? I think that I'm going to have to take a pass on that one."_

_And with that we each turned around and walked away from each other._

Yet here I was, sitting on his bed like nothing happened. We hadn't talked in months, but I just had to see him.

He walked into his room and looked at me, not even surprised that I was there. Even after all of this time it was expected that I would show up eventually.

"Rory," he simply said, no particular inflection to his tone.

"Your maid let me in. I just needed . . . I just . . . " I sighed, trying to explain. I couldn't even come up with a lame response as to why I was there.

"Don't worry about it," he responded, sitting down next to me, the side of our legs touching. "You can always come here. You know that."

"I figured that it was time," I said, rather ominously, not fully aware of the meaning of the words.

He glanced sideways at me, his brows furrowed. "You figured that it was time? I don't quite-"

"-know where I'm going with this?" I replied, cutting him off, followed by a small nervous laugh. "I know. I'm trying to get somewhere with this. You know how I am sometimes."

"Yes, I do know you" he replied simply in an ominous tone of his own.

And I knew it, right then. I knew that he knew me in a way that only he could, just like the way that I knew him.

"I can't help but think about you all the time. I should be studying, but there you are. I'm sleeping and you're in the leading role. It's horrible and it's ruining my life," I blurt out.

Of course, the last sentence didn't seem to come out quite right. Things never came out quite right when it came to telling him about my feelings.

"Thank you?" he said, confused by my declaration.

"I meant it in a good way."

"You meant that I'm horrible and am ruining your life in a good way?"

"Yes."

"O.K."

"O.K."

"So basically what you're telling me is that you want to be with me?" he finally responded after a moment.

"Basically."

"O.K."

"O.K?"

"O.K."

I laughed at how ridiculous the conversation was. "Time for a new word."

"As you wish."

We sat for a moment in silence, taking in the conversation. Finally, he reached over and took my hand in his, intertwining our fingers.

"So we're going to do this?"

"Yeah. We're really going to do this."

The End


End file.
